Believers and Non Believers
...general public. The first point I would like to talk about is the moon’s influence upon the Earth’s waters. Houlding in her article theorizes that the Earths tides are clearly created by the force of the Moon’s Orbit, along with the Earth’s own revolution and gravitational pull from the sun. She claims that when the Moon moves it pull drags behind a body of water. The most dramatic tides occur after full Moon and the new Moon, when the earth, the sun and the Moon all aline, and there is a strong gravitational force. When the Moon is at a 90-degree angle from the Sun and the gravitational effects conflict causing affects on the Earth in many ways such as, the surface tension is increased, and also the density of the air surrounding the Earth tends to flow like the sea. Recent surveys that have been conducted show that the Moon’s influence over the Earth’s rivers and oceans also extends to the effects of the rainfall on the Earth. In a recent experiment observer collected from 1,544 weather stations across America from 1900 to 1949 reveals that heavy rainfall occurs mostly on the days after the new moon and full moon. Carroll’s article contradicts this theory by stating that the lunar force has a very weak tidal force, he claims “A mother holding her child will exert 12 million more times as much tidal force as on her child as the moon,” a quote from his article. In his article he also quotes astronomer George O. Abell who says that a mosquito would exert more gravitational pull on your arm than the moon would. But Carroll agrees with the notion that the high tides are cause by the lining up of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. The next point I would like to discuss is the notion that the Moon has an effect on the suicide and murder rates. In Holdings article state that many documented studies show that suicide rates increase around the full moon, and that new Moons, quarter Moons, and full Moon’s are supposed to indicate crisis periods when reported incidents of violence and accidents increase. On study that was conducted and in her article is this, between 1956 and 1970 there were 4,000 murders examined that had been taken place in Miami and Cleveland USA. The investigating psychologist was Arnold Leiber, he said he was “astounded” by the results. The results showed that the murders seemed to be peaking around the new and full Moon, and that’s what he concluded. In Carroll’s article however Kelly et al examined more than 100 studies and found that the phases of the moon accounted f...